Froyo has been installed. After a smooth and painless installation the Android OS update Froyo has made it to the HTC Desire (boyfriend’s prize possession).
Two words are really all that is needed; schmick, and fast, seriously fast.
Froyo
Although we’ve both used tethering for ages the native inclusion on Froyo is impressive, straightforward and simple. In fact I’m writing this post connected to the phone after one simple click. There is no longer an excuse to pay hotels exorbitant fees when travelling, just tether.
The app screen has a slightly curved effect which while merely aesthetic gives a great 3-dimensional aspect.
Browser speed is incredible. With what is claimed to be the world’s fastest browser, I’m certain is correct. I’d say it’s at least 3x the speed of Donut which was already quick in terms of mobile browsing. Google Street View loads up in a split second, moving down a road with a few finger clicks is seamless.
Images in email load up without the annoyance of selecting ’show’ and you can easily add another Gmail account, super if you have multiple or wish to share. Of course there are other benefits of Froyo from a developer and back end perspective such as better integration with exchange and the Android market.
I’m certainly looking forward to Gingerbread, Android 3.0. Can it possibly get any better?
p.s. Oh and Flash works…
Yesterday I reached the 1000 mark, the milestone, the centurion of Twitter followers for our brand. It took a few months to get there, a lot of research, a lot of listening and a lot of learning. My strategy was to listen first, engage second and listen again. Tweeting for a brand has given me considerable insight into what others get right, get wrong and just quite frankly don’t do at all. More so an initial branding exercise we never thought we’d generate business through Twitter, but we have. I’ve also formed some great friendships and found some wonderful people, brands and products I never knew existed.
I have been asked many questions along the way so thought I’d share some of my insights and how it worked for me.
When I’m on Twitter I like to imagine I’m at a cocktail party. I physically visualise myself standing in a room full of people I don’t know, all talking about things that interest them. I see my Twitter lists as groups of people who either know each other or more often who turned up to the party and realised they shared a similar interest. Using lists is a great way to easily find a group of people with similar interests – which you also share. Sure the search function is a way to tap into the invite list, but it doesn’t necessarily mean a bond will be formed.
Would you walk up to a group of people you don’t know and say “We sell widgets, they are $5 and the best in Australia.” Uhh, didn’t think so.
That’s not to say you couldn’t end up selling those same widgets, at that same function, you’d just have to be a bit more clever about it. So this begs the next question…
How do I promote my brand?
People don’t use Twitter to find products or brands, but they do. They find the products and brands through word of mouth, positive branding or targeted marketing. Just like you would at a cocktail party, overhearing somebody talking about their frustrations with a product might be a suitable time for you to listen allowing you the chance to mention your better product in a personalised way.
Generate positive word of mouth. If somebody mentions your brand (positively) re-tweet it. Talk to them, show that you appreciate their loyalty and most importantly that they are actively telling people about it. Seek feedback. What did they love? What could you do better? Ensure this gets passed to a decision making team however or there’s no point.
I discussed the simple way to calculate customer satisfaction in an earlier post, if you are running a Net Promoter Score you’ll have a heads up as to what to expect in Social Media. If you have more promoters than detractors, then that should reflect in any channel including Twitter. Sometimes you’ll see promoters jumping in and doing the job for you! This is most common in forums but can also be seen on Twitter if your fans are passionate about you.
After all if 78% of people trust recommendations while only 14% trust advertising, shouldn’t generating positive word of mouth be your biggest concern? Why would you waste a medium perfect for generating word of mouth as a simple information-serving billboard?
How do I start? Management is scared
I hear this a lot. There is no simple answer to this one. Each company is different and each industry needs a different approach for all channels, including Social Media. My answer to this however is pretty simple. If people don’t like your brand or product, guess what, they are speaking badly about you anyway. Wouldn’t you rather know what they are saying? I sure would. I’d also love the chance to be able to rectify the issue or explain the situation. The smart companies are monitoring Social Media for bad word of mouth – and actually doing something about it. This comes back to generating positive word of mouth and whilst this is a bigger issue than Social Media itself, it is a great platform to do it.
Be Human
Put a face to your brand or at the very least a name. That is unless you enjoy turning up to parties in Masquerade. The mystery factor fortunately doesn’t hold up on Twitter, we want to know what you’re about, especially if you’re pushing a brand. What position or department are you from? Why are you the face of Twitter? Will I always be speaking to you when I write? I would certainly expect the same person to continue the conversation I had at the beginning of the function, it would seem odd to chat to a 40 year old male about something only to have a 19 year old female continue the conversation at the end of the night.
Twitter is no different to a normal conversation in a normal environment. Forget all the tech talk and treat it like it was meant to be treated, to join the conversation.
Give back
Whilst listening is important, you aren’t going to engage your followers if you do nothing. Be bold and confident! We’ve all turned up somewhere before without knowing a soul, so make the decision whether you’ll be the one to turn the night into a success or grab some free nibbles, sit in the corner and then tiptoe out.
Provide interesting content and importantly, track it. What you find interesting may not be to others. I’m constantly surprised at the things I post that people open – it began as those things that I would have never expected, so try a variety of different styles and content and track to test what works, and what doesn’t. Photos are always a winner, after all a picture speaks a thousand words – and you’ve only got 140 characters to burn!
Make it work for your brand
Above all else, join the conversation. It sounds simple, but it’s rarely done. Brands jump on and shout specials, proclaim products and don’t listen to their customers. After all they might end up being those sitting there right in front of you, that’s if you play your cards right.
Twitter 1000
So you’ve got a presence in Social Media? Value your website’s SEO? Care about customer engagement? Trying to promote your brand? Increase traffic? All these things are important to any website or company but what social channels are best for you?
This simple guide put together by CMO.com is a really useful reference (albeit basic) on what channels are best for your specific goals. For instance if you think you’re getting great SEO from having a basic presence on Facebook, think again. Customer engagement however, is a strength of the Facebook medium. Customers can easily share their thoughts, read your news and comments and feel a part of a community. Like all Social Media however, don’t spam or blatantly promote, you’ll scare them off.
The Social Landscape
Recently an email was passed around with a voucher for a 2 for 1 deal at Grill’d the gourmet burger chain. I diligently passed this on to the rest of the office and a group of enthusiastic, hungry staff went down to place the ‘Big Friday’ order. They soon returned rather disheartened as the staff at Grill’d had turned them away as the promotion was apparently Melbourne based only.
Nowhere on the voucher were Terms & Conditions or anything stating ‘Melbourne Only’ which is a big slip up to start with and certainly a rare oversight these days. Would it have really hurt them to explain the situation but still honour the voucher? They could have done so and then put up a counter sign explaining the voucher now circulating Australia at a rate of knots was not valid at that store, so that the same situation did not repeat. They did neither.
the taste of lost opportunity
What lost opportunity.
Nando’s soon announced that they would be honouring the Grill’d vouchers so where did we all head for lunch? Nando’s of course. Funnily enough somewhere not many would usually pick as it’s a little further down the road and finding a park on a Friday at our local is a serious drag.
Never underestimate the power of viral campaigns, whether you start them yourself or somebody else does on your behalf. Be in control. Don’t let the message be a bad one, let the word of mouth spreading through Australia’s inboxes be good news for your business. In this case Nando’s has seized the opportunity that Grill’d simply threw away.
I’ve since seen the voucher 6 times from various friends from different networks. It’s now accompanied with a header “NANDOS HONOURING GRILL’D VOUCHERS!”.
So go on, head down to Nando’s and give them the support they deserve!
Update: Since writing this article Grill’d have announced on their website blog that after their customers have spoken ‘loudly and clearly’ they will now honour the vouchers until 15th March 2010. The comments are a fascinating insight into what customers thought about the move and interestingly they haven’t provided the voucher on the site? Do they really think it will have trouble spreading now that it’s online?
I’m sure that the cost of lost business has well surpassed the cost of the honouring the special. Bad move Grill’d.
Do you run your own blog or website? Do you wonder whether it’s applying good SEO principles to be easily found on search engines? Are you like me and baulk at the idea of paying somebody to figure it out?
I have the answer with some great (free!) tools to check your SEO health.
Recently I shared Twitter Grader as a simple (and free) tool to check how you score in the Twittersphere. From the same group, HubSpot comes:
You simply need to plug in the URL of your blog or website, and sit back and relax while Grader churns through your site. You will receive an overall score but don’t dwell on this, I feel the information that follows is what is useful as it gives you a breakdown on what’s actually missing. Use this information to make some simple tweaks and your SEO health will improve dramatically.
Even though I make a concerted effort to tick the ‘SEO’ boxes with each post, I found out I was missing Meta descriptions on my homepage. A big no-no and something despite my efforts I had missed.
SEO insights for attieorourke.com
I should mention at this point that if you are using Wordpress.org there are some fantastic, free SEO packs you can install that will do the majority of the work for you. I use the the ‘All in one SEO Pack’ by Hallsofmontezuma which I’ve found simple and easy to use.
So have a play, you might gain some great insights that are usually fixed with nothing more than a simple tweak or two. You’ll reap the benefits down the track when your organic listings eventually climb the rank.
It’s amazing how your perception of a product or service can change from the way it is presented to you. The little things you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about will really stand out when you get it wrong and your competitors get it right.
I was recently part of a team undergoing the mammoth task of finding a new CRM system with the goal of updating our Prehistoric system with something from the modern age.
After enduring many gruelling hours of CRM presentations what struck me is the vast difference in presentation skills with sadly these rarely matching up with the quality of the products being offered.
It may sound awfully petty, especially to someone who wouldn’t dream of ironing (I solely buy ‘iron-free’ clothing), but an un-ironed shirt gives you demerit points just walking in the door. Body language was another killer with several presenters looking as though they were spending an afternoon in a beach chair. Would it really have killed them to sit up for the presentation giving us the impression they take pride in their company? In one presentation, our ‘would be’ account manager fell asleep in her chair!
Dedication to Presentation
Whilst I’m all for a casual approach, especially at the office (I believe everybody works better when comfortable) when pitching to a client for goodness sake look professional. It truly reflects your service.
Two members of the team actually pointed out that they didn’t believe we would get good post-sales service because the presenters were clock watching and dashed off before we could shake their hands goodbye. Sadly they were probably right, but if they weren’t, they’ve just lost our business for nothing but sheer laziness and a poorly timed schedule.
Watching six of these presentations in the same week also highlighted that some presenters just don’t listen. Could they not wait until the question has finished, it was clearly asked for a reason. Also your nonsense sales spin didn’t fool anybody and lost our trust, fast. If you didn’t know the answer just say so.
Nobody knows all the answers but everybody appreciates honesty.
Impress your clients with professionalism, good manners, empathy and care. It sounds so obvious yet I’ve found it a rare sight lately. On many occasions those you are pitching to aren’t technical experts and will therefore place an even higher emphasis on your demeanour and attitude making it crucial.
In a competitive world delivery is key, get it right and give yourself an easy head start in selling your product. Get it wrong and you might as well kiss your sale goodbye.
I got in a little early to work and thought I’d check the news, on Twitter on course. Well something must be happening because I got the dreaded:
Twitter at Capacity
This has been happening a lot lately. Twitter’s status blog is good at keeping users informed, but it’s a frustrating exercise when the concept of Twitter is ‘now’ not ‘later’.
I’ll exercise some patience and check back soon. Hopefully the feelings of isolation will pass with a morning coffee and a chat to *gasp* actual people in the office.
I’ve tried out quite a few Twitter tools but have found the majority do the same thing only in slightly different ways. Others are completely pointless unless you’re trying to procrastinate in which case they’re gold.
Even if you are not on a budget there’s no need to stray past the free twitter tools available, I’ve listed some great ones below (in no particular order).
1. Trendtistic
A lot like Google Insights for Search or Google Trends this tool graphs what’s going on in the Twitterverse.
Highly useful from a business perspective to look at product or brand trends over time.
Trendistic - Android
2. Tweet Stats
This tool plots the frequency and location of your tweets as well as other useful bits and pieces such as who you reply or retweet to the most. Just enter your Twitter name and it also generates a tag cloud and follower count trend.
Useful if you’re using Twitter for business and you want to know when you’re neglecting your audience.
Tweet Stats
A little egotistical but it is nice to have reassurance that being on Twitter is worthwhile. Unsure how this works (exactly) but a bit like the in’s and out’s of Google’s algorithm, who really cares when you’re ranking high?
There are a few other tools if you delve further into this site and it’s nice to see Australia at number 6 worldwide for Twitter users.
Twitter Grader - Country Rank
I hope that some of these tools prove useful. There are many out there but these are the ones I’ve found the best of the free Twitter tools. Just don’t expect the clock to stop while you’re playing!
All week I’ve been itching to post my thoughts on the iPad but with capped internet, it’s been futile. The most simple tasks one takes for granted become unbearable at dial-up speed. So now I’m back in the real world I’m able to pay my bills, catch up with friends, write this post and put away the anger management book I was told to read during an incident on the first night we were capped.
Apple iPad
Right, so the iPad. Apple what have you been doing? Surely your R & D could spare a few hours to develop something that can do two things at once! After all I’m still astounded that your coveted iPhone can’t multitask and this is a tablet after all, not a pocket sized device.
Like most Apple products the aesthetics of the iPad are pretty good, but I don’t think it has come a long way from the iPhone – if only that it’s, well, bigger. With regards to the technical product itself, they seem to have truly hit the neglect button.
No Multitasking. No Camera. No High Definition. No USB. No Flash. No HDMI out…
Hang on, no USB? What happened here? Did somebody forget to schedule the meeting where USB was the agenda?
Anyway, rather than write yet another critical review, a simple Google search will find you several, I’d rather offer some constructive advice on better products to look out for if a tablet computer is what you seek.
Microsoft Courier – A little nostalgic, I see this one appealing to those who miss the feeling of pen to paper, but desire the most current technology. The middle binder allows you to ‘tuck’ items away and the two screens look to offer the user a true journal experience.
Microsoft Courier
HP Slate - Yes, it’s a real PC. USB has not been left out here and running on windows 7 I can see this being a big hit with non-mac users. More stats on this will be released soon but launching after Apple’s heavy campaign, I expect HP to get it pretty right.
HP Slate
Chrome Tablet - As an Android user, I’m excited about this one. Not only does Google rarely get it wrong, but like the Nexus One, they are starting well behind. The end result will have to be pretty schmick to compete with the Apple marketing army and with a Chrome operating system and lightning fast Snapdragon chip, the differentiators will be far more than just USB ports and HD viewing.
Google Chrome Tablet
Like the iPhone to the smartphone market, the iPad isn’t the only tablet to be released this year.
Stormed by Apple’s dominant marketing campaign, the world seems to have again forgotten that there are other better products out there. I’ll give Apple due credit on the marketing front, they just get it right. Mind you they had to in this case because the iPad certainly doesn’t sell itself.
Nexus One, the first Google phone? I don’t think so. The best Google phone? Easily.
On Tuesday, 5th January Google officially released the Nexus One, what is being hailed as the ‘iPhone Killer’ a ‘Superphone’ and of course ‘Google’s first’.
Now whilst the phone itself is brilliant, it is by far Google’s first. It is the first phone that is being sold directly by Google but in terms of the smartphone race, it’s jumping in to a well established team. In early 2009 Google claimed they expected 18 Android phones by the year’s end and already we’ve seen some great developments here with the release of the Hero and most recently the Motorola Droid.
Google's Nexus One
Several critics have deemed the Nexus One a let down in that it hasn’t provided a large enough leap from previous Android operating phones but many are forgetting just how good the Android operating system and those phones that carry it already are. It would seem that constant innovation may have had a negative effect on Google’s launch of the Nexus one as critics are too busy comparing the leap of functions, over the actual end result.
Google’s release and development of Android and Android operating phones have been typical of their brand. A low marketing spend, mostly driven on word of mouth and reviews and built from the customer up with a focus on constant innovation and improvement. The Nexus One is simply a peak in the development of this outstanding platform, and it certainly won’t be the last.
The difference that I see is that the iPhone was launched hard, alone and in my opinion flawed. The world was so astounded with the leap that they forget the phone wasn’t perfect. In fact the phone still can’t even multitask, and the first release did not have 3G capability – something that seems absurd in hindsight.
Many do not realise the implications of a phone that cannot multitask but the best analogy I’ve heard came from a friend. He has developed a fear of phone calls while running as if he’s running my tracks (an app that tracks speed, location and time) and receives a phone call, the my tracks application stops running (no pun intended). Having had an Android phone for over a year, I can’t imagine a life without multiple apps, it would be like cooking a meal with one stove burner.
Of course the battery life on the iPhone is great! Any phone that can only run one app at a time should have an amazing battery life, it would seem insane for it not to.
Sadly it has taken the Droid and now the Nexus One to compete with iPhone in direct comparisons of smartphone battery life.
I certainly don’t mean this to turn into an iPhone slamming session. By all means it’s a fantastic phone and I believe has inspired a great deal of innovation in the phone market. I’m simply tired of hearing comparisons between Android phones and the iPhone that fail to mention the fact that the iPhone cannot even multitask and hail the battery life as a killer over Android.
Droid, Nexus One and iPhone
Even Mashable has stated a con of the phone is its lack of multitouch, this is however not quite true as most of the Android phones have multitouch capability in hardware and this function can easily be added. I can’t find any solid evidence or statement by Google as to why multitouch hasn’t been officially included, it would seem the logical explanation is yet another patent or legality probably caused by Apple.
In fact Apple asked Google not to include a 3.5mm headphone jack on the G1 due to patent infringements. Now if you ask me, a 3.5mm headphone jack is as patentable as a Labrador, but somehow they managed to win this battle.
Enter the Nexus One. We now have a 3.5mm headphone jack, multitouch capability (by simply adding the function yourself) more space, better talk time than the iPhone and a slimmer design. I see the only flaw in the phone the fact that its predecessors were already great.
The Nexus One is a sequel to a great movie, although brilliant, reviewers are being too harsh as their expectations are unrealistic. Standing alone the Nexus One walks all over the iPhone, the let down in its launch is that other Android phones were already close in the battle.
iPhone vs Droid vs Nexus One
